Baby Factories Research Articles

Socioeconomic Dynamism and the Growth of Baby Factories in Nigeria

Illegally breeding babies for marketing purposes otherwise known as “infant commodification” is increasing in Nigeria. This menace is a vice that threatens the lives and wellbeing of babies, young girls, and women. This article investigates through an in-depth review of scholarly publication and media coverages the factors that have contributed to the emergence and growth of the illicit industry in Nigeria. It examines the role of cultural beliefs, social attitudes, and norms as well as the harsh economic conditions of the nation as factors playing pivotal roles in the continual growth of baby farming in Nigeria. Some of these sociocultural factors are social stigmatization of pregnancy outside wedlock, stigmatization of adopted children, and the importance attached to fertility and the demonization of childlessness. The article draws on Emile Durkheim anomie theory and Chambers dimensions of poverty to explain how breakdown within the nation’s socioeconomic structure has a concomitant impact in breading social vices. It concludes by recommending that there is a need to jettison stigmatizing sociocultural beliefs within the nation’s social fabrics. Responsive attitude toward family reproductive issues should be encouraged and finally the activities of health care providers, operators of nongovernmental organizations taking custody of babies and young girls be properly monitored. As well, stringent punishment be meted out to apprehended operators of these baby farms to serve as deterrent to others.

The mass media and national development: the case of ‘baby factory’ activities in Nigeria

The mass media play vital role in the national development of any nation, they provide information, education, entertainment, integration and social interaction in a country by giving insight into the happenings in the society and helping with the development of a nation. The media are also seen as an agent of change instilling new values and behaviours in the society. This paper examined the mass media, national development and ‘baby factory’ activities in Nigeria. It examined the role of the mass media in national development and the need for the mass media to raise campaign program to combat proliferation of ‘baby factory’ activities in Nigeria. It explored the agenda-setting and development media theory and explained that the media should be used for nation building. This paper argued that though the mass media have the power to easily propagate ideas on social change, they do not perform their functions and objectives fully in Nigeria due to political, economic and social conditions in the country and in the mass media organizations and concluded that they should be allowed to promote the national identity of Nigeria through the in-depth coverage of societal issues that may be detrimental to the country’s growth.Keywords: ‘Baby factory’ activities, ‘Baby factory’, Mass media, National development

From Charity Homes to Baby Factories’, the Evolvement of Baby Factories in Abia State, Nigeria

Baby factory is becoming a common feature in south eastern Nigeria. This is more worrisome within the backdrop of the fight against sexual abuse and the law against child trafficking in Nigeria. The criminal act is not only flourishing, but also beating the dragnet of security operatives in the geopolitical space. It is against the backdrop that this paper explored the evolvement of baby factories in Abia state, Nigeria. This cross-sectional exploratory survey employed intra-method triangulation to collect data through key informant interviews, in-depth interviews and unobtrusive observation from 25 purposively selected respondents in Abia state. Findings revealed that most of the baby factories started as charity homes and evolved into baby factories which was caused by socioeconomic factors like ‘get-rich-quick syndrome, ungodliness greed Oil the part of owners and operators of baby factory, infertility and barrenness, cultural value placed Oil having children in African homes, psychological trauma of not having children Oil the part of patronizers of baby factory, while poverty, stigmatization attached to getting pregnant outside wedlock, peer influence 011 the side of victims of baby factory. Dropping out of school, risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases are the effects of baby factory. In view of curbing the menace, stiffer penalties should be meted out to offenders of baby factories while law enforcement agencies should cooperate and collaborate with the public for intelligence gathering.

Communication Intervention Programmes on Knowledge of ‘Baby Factory’ Phenomenon among in-School Adolescents in South-East Nigeria

Media reports have indicated that “Baby factory” activity in Nigeria which is the harbouring of girls with unwanted pregnancies, and the sell of the babies are emerging as an important social phenomenon with serious negative impact on health and development of adolescents. The study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of two sets of communication interventions on the knowledge towards baby factory phenomenon among in-school adolescents in South-East Nigeria. The study was quasi-experimental with three intervention groups and a control. Key- Informant Interviews (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were initially conducted to determine the perspectives of the target group and officials of the Ministry of Women Affairs on baby factory phenomenon to facilitate the design of the communication messages and instrument for evaluating the study outcome. Two communication intervention programmes audio-recorded and print messages) were developed and implemented. The study findings revealed that the communication intervention programmes on ‘baby factory’ activities designed, empowered and moved teenagers from at risk position to knowledge-equipped position. The study further recommended that, the state government through the Ministry of Women Affairs should have more focused communication intervention programme in secondary schools to educate students who are most vulnerable to this phenomenon. Keywords: Adolescents, baby factory phenomenon, communication intervention programme, knowledge, media

Socialinio darbo vaidmuo prekybos kūdikiais prevencijai Nigerijoje

The phrase “baby factory” is often employed indiscriminately with “baby farms” or “baby harvesting”. “Baby factory” can be interchangeably used as “child trafficking or infants trafficking” in this study exploration. This article aims to understanding of predominance of baby factory from the knowledge of social workers in Nigeria about their role in the neutralizing activity of the traffickers. The greater part of this research was to discover the role of social work profession in prevention of baby factory in Nigeria and the social workers recognized that baby factory is another key issue, they need to confront in the society, especially in the rural areas where victims are more vulnerable and as well as global concern to the international social work. However, the social work profession need to be furnished with necessary equipment in order to reduced and prevent baby factories delinquent successfully in Nigeria.

The interplay between fragility and crime in African states: a case study of Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire

AbstractA sizable number of African countries are becoming increasingly fragile, chiefly because of their persistently weak institutions and their incapacity to respond adequately to a plethora of well‐known and emerging security, political, and socio‐economic challenges. This article investigates the connection between fragility and crime in contemporary Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire. Field research was conducted in the two West African countries, where opinions of representative samples of the populations were sought through questionnaires, in‐depth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs). What are the prevailing and emerging criminal threats confronting Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire in contemporary dispensation? On the one hand, the research discovers that organised crime like kidnapping for ransom, terrorism (referring to the activities of Boko Haram), rape of underage minors and girls, and the ‘baby factory’ industry, is prevalent as a result of state fragility in Nigeria; and, on the other hand, cybercrime in Côte d'Ivoire. The article suggests an urgent need for proactive action in order to prevent the fast‐growing threats identified in Nigeria being replicated in Côte d'Ivoire, especially at this time when the latter is in its post‐conflict phase. Also, the transnational nature of the above‐mentioned organised crime has grave implications for regional and international security, stemming from the fact that perpetrators often have established global networks and operations.

Feature article: Baby factory: Romance and reproduction in Norway’s first sound film

Abstract This article considers expressions of ambivalence at the intersections of gender, industry and urbanity in Norway’s first sound film, Den store barnedåpen (The Great Christening) (Ibsen, 1931). Despite its status as a city film, The Great Christening conveys a subtly anti-industrial message, suggesting that true happiness is to be found at a short but significant distance from the factory. Previous scholarship on gender has considered the innovative depiction of Ibsen’s male protagonist Harald and his soft or domestic masculinity. This article uses close reading and historical research on the family in inter-war Norway to reconsider such characterization, as well as the distinct position of the biological mother in the film. The Great Christening expresses great confidence in Norwegian kinship, fertility and urban possibilities. At the same time, it separates romance and reproduction, keeping its male hero at a distance from the anxious association of working-class mothers and mechanization.

Human trafficking: a variant of the historic slave trade in contemporary Nigeria

Human trafficking is as old as human existence and civilisation. It dates back to the time of old kingdoms where captivities of conquered empires were taking from into slavery and compelled to serve kings and princes of foreign kingdoms. This practice later changed to the sales of recalcitrant or sickly captives to other powerful kings that needed the services of slaves either as palace guards, farm workers, stewards, or in some cases as objects of sacrifice to appease the gods during a festival. Unfortunately, the ascendancy of this practice in contemporary times has now become a bane of challenge to the government, stakeholders and even security operatives as several youths (particularly teen girls) are been recruited as sex workers overseas, or used as ‘baby producers’ in what is popularly described as a ‘baby factory’ in Nigeria. This paper therefore examines some recent issues on kidnapping as well as factors responsible for this criminal act in Nigeria. Sequel to findings, this paper made some recommendations.Keywords: Human trafficking, Human right, Sex workers, Slave trade, Smuggling of people

Baby Factories in Nigeria

Baby factories and baby harvesting are relatively new terms that involve breeding, trafficking, and abuse of infants and their biological mothers. Since it was first described in a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization report in Nigeria in 2006, several more baby factories have been discovered over the years. Infertile women are noted to be major patrons of these baby factories due to the stigmatization of childless couples in Southern Nigeria and issues around cultural acceptability of surrogacy and adoption. These practices have contributed to the growth in the industry which results in physical, psychological, and sexual violence to the victims. Tackling baby factories will involve a multifaceted approach that includes advocacy and enacting of legislation barring baby factories and infant trafficking and harsh consequences for their patrons. Also, programs to educate young girls on preventing unwanted pregnancies are needed. Methods of improving awareness and acceptability of adoption and surrogacy and reducing the administrative and legal bottlenecks associated with these options for infertile couples should be explored to diminish the importance of baby factories.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A TOOL FOR MITIGATING ‘BABY FACTORY’ HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN NIGERIA.

30Apr 2016 ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A TOOL FOR MITIGATING BABY FACTORY HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN NIGERIA. Sidikat Shitu. Directorate of General Studies, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria.

Infant Trafficking and Baby Factories: A New Tale of Child Abuse in Nigeria

Baby factories are new systematic abuse structures that are promoting infant trafficking, neo‐slavery and the exploitation of young women with unwanted pregnancies in Nigeria. Since this practice was first described in 2006, it has been growing rather than abating. This paper reviews the scientific literature, along with media reports, and critiques this phenomenon from a children's rights' perspective. Children born into baby factories are denied various civil rights. They also suffer abuse in the baby factories and as a consequence of being born in such places. This abuse can be classified into immediate and long term. Immediate abuse includes inadequate care and its repercussions, denial of birth registration, illegal adoption and murder. Long‐term or delayed abuse that they may be exposed to includes health‐related consequences, neglect, death, child labour, prostitution and other sexual abuse, organ trafficking and recruitment as child soldiers. Various factors are thought to drive the baby factory phenomenon which include poverty, high infertility rates and the profitability of local and inter‐country adoptions. Programmes directed at addressing the root cause of the problem are needed in order to eliminate infant trafficking. Also, clear laws that delineate inter‐country adoption and infant trafficking need to be enacted. Most importantly, baby factories need to be recognised as child trafficking routes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.‘New systematic abuse structures that are promoting infant trafficking, neo‐slavery and the exploitation of young women’Key Practitioner Messages: A new type of child abuse and human trafficking that targets infants has emerged in Nigeria in what are described as ‘baby factories’. Baby factories are criminal entities that exploit young girls with unwanted pregnancies and the practice is growing. Children born in baby factories suffer a range of immediate abuses and are exposed to long-term abuses. Baby factories violate several articles in the Convention on the Rights of a Child. ‘Criminal entities that exploit young girls with unwanted pregnancies’

Baby factories taint surrogacy in Nigeria

The practice of reproductive medicine in Nigeria is facing new challenges with the proliferation of ‘baby factories’. Baby factories are buildings, hospitals or orphanages that have been converted into places for young girls and women to give birth to children for sale on the black market, often to infertile couples, or into trafficking rings. This practice illegally provides outcomes (children) similar to surrogacy. While surrogacy has not been well accepted in this environment, the proliferation of baby factories further threatens its acceptance. The involvement of medical and allied health workers in the operation of baby factories raises ethical concerns. The lack of a properly defined legal framework and code of practice for surrogacy makes it difficult to prosecute baby factory owners, especially when they are health workers claiming to be providing services to clients. In this environment, surrogacy and other assisted reproductive techniques urgently require regulation in order to define when ethico-legal lines have been crossed in providing surrogacy or surrogacy-like services.

Altruistic Agencies and Compassionate Consumers

What makes a multimillion-dollar, transnational intimate industry possible when most people see it as exploitative? Using the newly emergent case of commercial surrogacy in India, this article extends the literature on stratified reproduction and intimate industries by examining how surrogacy persists and thrives despite its common portrayal as the “rent-a-womb industry” and “baby factory.” Using interview data with eight infertility specialists, 20 intended parents, and 70 Indian surrogate mothers, as well as blogs and media stories, we demonstrate how market actors justify their pursuits through narrating moral frames of compassion and altruism that are not incidental but systematic to and constitutive of transnational surrogacy. We observed two predominant moral frames: (1) surrogacy liberates and empowers Indian women from patriarchal control; and (2) surrogacy furthers reproductive rights. Within these frames, the market exchange of money for babies is cast as compassion, which allows commissioning clients to sidestep accusations of racism, classism, and sexism. Yet, we reveal that the ability to navigate around these threats relies on racist, classist, and sexist tropes about Third World working-class women. Further, we find that surrogate mothers did not experience significant changes in economic status after surrogacy.

Neither “Baby Factories” Nor Squatting “Primitives”: Defining Women Workers Through Alternative Childbirth Methods in the United States, 1945–1965

Historians generally regard alternative childbirth practices in the mid-twentieth century as either a reaction to the medicalization of childbirth or as part of the maternalist revival. Putting these methods into the context of middle-class women’s burgeoning workforce participation, however, this article identifies changes that go beyond medicalization or maternalism and argues that representations of alternative childbirth drew heavily on broader anxieties about the middle-class woman worker. Evidence from medical studies, childbirth texts, sociological studies, and popular magazines shows that alternative childbirth advocates, like workplace sociologists, recommended proper training for women to reconcile conflicts between feminine “nature” and productive work by suggesting that productive and reproductive identities could exist symbiotically in the labor room as in the board room. Maternal “nature” functioned as a check on producerist ambitions—represented by the Communist worker as automaton—while self-control could check women’s “natural” excesses—represented as the laboring “primitive.”

Wastage of Girl-Child in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Educational Planners

Wastage to this paper means people whose lives depend on variables that are detrimental to their progresses and contributions to nation building. In sub-Saharan Africa, the researcher observed that the ways girl-child is been wasted through abduction, child-trafficking, prostitution, early marriage, hostages, impregnation, drug abuse, baby factory, drop-outs is alarming and perhaps may affect the life of the girl-child. Hence, there is the need for the society and most importantly educational planners to address this issue. Therefore, the researcher through observations, interview and social media delved into the meanings, causes, effects, solutions of these social menaces most importantly abduction, baby factory and trafficking that have eaten deep into the life of the girl-child. Its implication to the educational planners such as strategic plan, curriculum review, capacity building, Networking and collaboration were identified. It was recommended that government should enact stringent law against the penetrators, Security measures should be intensified at the boarders and law enforcement agencies should be giving capacity building about baby factories and its correlation with human trafficking. The paper concluded that education Stakeholders (parents, schools, government, educational planners, the child, society, law enforcement agencies) should be ready to assist, create awareness and help the girl-child out of these cankerworms that prevails in our society. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s1p471

The Military and Internal Security in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects

Since the return to democratic rule in 1999, Nigeria has witnessed different forms of conflict ranging from sectarian to ethno-religious crises, whole sale abduction, hostage taking, arson, incidents of cattle rustlings and terrorism in the North. Our nascent democracy has also been tested by rampant crimes of armed robbery, baby factories and kidnappings in the East, pipeline vandalism, crude-oil theft and civil unrest in the South; abduction, hostage taking and ritual killings in the West. All these have had severe consequences on human and material resources of the nation hence the inevitability of military involvement in internal security of the country. This study seeks to investigate the extent to which the military have been involved in the nation’s internal security and the prospects and challenges associated with it. The study predominantly utilized secondary data and in the final analysis, the findings indicated that today’s Nigeria is witnessing a higher level of aggression and wanton destruction of lives and properties and as such the role of the military in the internal security of the nation cannot be over emphasized. Therefore this study recommends that the military should remain an indispensible partner in the internal security network of the country. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1301

Law and Literature: Story-Telling and Norms in Rousseau's Emile

The Law and Literature movement proposes that legal interpretation can be improved by borrowing methods from literary interpretation, by seeing legal decisions as stories, and by examining literature from a legal perspective. In Emile Rousseau presents us his Bildungsroman and educative novella about a Model Couple, Emile (the hypostasized Rousseau) and Sophie (the wise, sturdy farm girl). Rousseau recounts several stories in Emile, about false rape claims, faithless partners, women who try to be men and fail and in all a series of stories set around the theme of super-responsibility of women to be in the end: baby factories, to make soldiers for the state. Without intending to, Rousseau is comedic in presenting images of women that by today's standards are pathetically laughable. And yet these images of women influenced legislation and judgements because narrative gives scripts and roles to people to recreate in real life. Only by consciously exposing and deconstructing these roles and scripts would it be possible to live out something other than these prescripted, artificial and limiting roles.

Commentary: Ethical issues in surrogate motherhood

T he ACOG Committee on Ethics issued a thoughtful opinion on surrogacy (Number 88, November 1990). I find myself in agreement with virtually all points in the opinion, with the exception of the committee's endorsement of commercial surrogacy. Commercial surrogacy arrangements, whether they involve payment to a broker in addition to the surrogate, or to the surrogate alone, are ethically unacceptable and ought to be prohibited by law. Some critics of surrogacy contend that the practice itself constitutes exploitation of women. makes it appear as if surrogacy is unethical because it is an instance of a more general moral wrong. According to one feminist who opposes surrogacy, a woman provides womb service, the feminist issue surfaces. Women object to being baby factories or sex objects because it offends their human dignity . . . . ,,1 And further: This is going to end up as the final exploitation of women. It is always going to be poor women who have the babies and rich women who get them. These statements confuse two distinct issues: first, the alleged exploitation of individual women; and second, a potential for class exploitation, because poorer women will be the ones serving as surrogates for the more well-to-do. These would be sound objections to surrogacy if it were clearly a form of exploitation. When feminists charge that surrogacy itself exploits women, they are being paternalistic. They are questioning women's ability to know their own interests and to enter an agreement knowingly and competently. It is likely that commercial surrogacy does have a coercive aspect, because moneyespecially a large enough sum--can serve as a coercive inducement to do something a person might not otherwise do voluntarily. But that speaks more to the exploitation of poorer classes of women, which is a genuine moral worry, than it does to the exploitation of women in general. Feminists who oppose surrogacy presume to speak for all women. But what they are really saying is that those who elect to enter surrogacy arrangements lack the capacity to choose, and stand in need of protection. It is difficult to identify the precise features of surrogacy that could justify calling it exploitation. Evidence suggests that women who have served as surrogates are not the poorest of the poor. For the most part, their personal or family income levels fall in the range of lower-middle-class, rather than © 1991 by The Jacobs Institute of Women's Health 1049-3867/91/$3.50

Baby M, the surrogacy contract, and the health care professional: unanswered questions.

The Baby M case has forced us to take sides in the public debate over surrogate motherhood. Last year, advocates of this form of noncoital reproduction praised the New Jersey trial court for supporting the freedom to contract for such womb renting services, while critics warned that enforcement of such surrogacy contracts would condone the sale of babies and the exploitation of women as baby factories. In its unanimous opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court sided with the critics. Based on New Jersey's adoption law and public policy, the court refused to enforce the contract that provided money to a surrogate mother in return for her agreeing to be artificially inseminated with the Semen of another woman's husband, to conceive a child, to carry it to term, and to relinquish her parental rights and surrender her child to the natural father and his wife, regardless of the child's best interests.

The Family as the Locus of Gender, Class, and Political Struggle: The Example of Housework

Although the last decade of research on families has contributed enormously to our understanding of diversity in family structures and the relationship of family units to various other aspects of social life, it has, it seems to me, generally failed to identify and address sources of conflict within family life. Thus, the usefulness of this research for understanding women's situation has been particularly limited. The persistence and resilience of family forms in the midst of general social change, often forcefully documented in this research, have certainly helped to goad us, as feminists, to consider what women's interests may be in the mainte-